Calorie counts are coming to menus and vending machines near you. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced today that it has finalized its two rules requiring that calorie information be listed on menus and menu boards in chain restaurants, similar retail food establishments and vending machines with 20 or more locations. “Strikingly, Americans eat…
What's in Your Drink? TTB Takes a Step Toward Alcohol Labeling
How many calories are in a bottle of beer? How much alcohol is there in a shot of whiskey? How many serving are in a bottle of wine? Consumers would probably be hard-pressed to know the answers to these questions. Fortunately, that may soon change. Late last month, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade…
Letter From The Editor: National School Lunch Program
When I saw National School Lunch Week on the calendar for Oct. 15-19, it occurred to me there might be a straight line to be drawn between the past need to solve a national malnutrition problem and today’s epidemic of childhood obesity. My thought was that if the National School Lunch Program helped erase mass…
McDonald’s to Add Calorie Counts to Menus
The trend in labeling calories on menus got super sized Wednesday when McDonald’s announced that it will include calorie information next to all menu items starting next week. The company says it will now provide calorie counts across the board in all of its 14,000 U.S. locations, making it the first nationwide fast food chain…
Survey: Consumers Want Widespread Calorie Labeling on Menus
The majority of Americans would like to see calories listed next to many menu offerings that are set to be exempt from new labeling regulations, according to a recent survey of approximately 1,000 adults. The poll, commissioned by consumer advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), found that 70 percent of respondents…
FDA’s Promises for the Next Four Years
Ordinarily I find government plans of this type to be soporific but this one is especially well written and well thought out (with some caveats).
The report is a statement of FDA commitment to what it is going to do in the next four years in food areas that affect people and animals. It includes …
One Third of ‘Empty Calories’ Come from Snacks
Americans are getting about one-third of all their daily calories from the “empty calories” of snack foods – that is, from solid fats and added sugar of little nutritional value, according to the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS).
On a positive note, however, the ARS says one-third of Americans’ daily fruit intake — which is …
The New Study of Protein and Weight Gain: Calories Count!
I was intrigued by the new study from the Pennington Research Center concluding that weight gain depends on calories, not how much protein you eat.
The idea that the protein, fat, or carbohydrate content of your diet matters more to weight than how many calories you eat persists despite much evidence to the contrary.
This …
JAMA: Calories, Not Protein, Count for Weight Loss
Eating too much is what makes us gain weight, and calories alone are more significant than protein when it comes to a weight-loss regime.
That’s the finding of a new study published in the current issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The study involved 25 healthy men and women, 18 to …
Curbing Sugary Drinks to Curb Obesity in America
Health advocates are launching an initiative to cut one of the direct connections to the American obesity epidemic: sugary drinks.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) Monday announced the start of its “Life’s Sweeter with Fewer Sugary Drinks” campaign, whose goal is to reduce Americans consumption of soda and other sugar-loaded beverages …